High-speed visualisation of combustion in modern gasoline engines

Today research and development in the field of gasoline engines have to face a double challenge: on the one hand, fuel consumption has to be reduced, while on the other hand, ever more stringent emission standards have to be fulfilled. The development of engines with its complexity of in-cylinder processes requires modem development tools to exploit the full potential in order to reduce fuel consumption. Especially optical, non-intrusive measurement techniques will help to get a better understanding of the processes. With the presented high-speed visualisation system the electromagnetic radiation from combustion in the UV range is collected by an endoscope and transmitted to a visualisation system by 10,000 optical fibres. The signal is projected to 1,920 photomultipliers, which convert the optical into electric signals with a maximum temporal resolution of 200 kHz. This paper shows the systematic application of flame diagnostics in modem combustion systems. For this purpose, a single-cylinder SI engine has been modified for a spray guided combustion strategy as well as for HCCI. The characteristics of flame propagation in both combustion modes were recorded and correlated with thermodynamic analyses. In case of the spray guided GDI engine, high pressure fuel injection was applied and evaluated.